Global infernos create firefighter shortage

B.C.’s firefighting resources are stretched thin and without the help they usually get from international crews.

Traditionally, the BC Wildfire Service has been able to enlist the help of firefighters from other provinces and countries, but right now infernos from Greece to California are keeping them busy.

This means relief is not easily accessible for B.C.’s firefighters

B.C. firefighters work 14 days straight before they take mandated rest days for operational safety. This means the wildfire service may be forced to have fewer firefighters on each of the fires in B.C. while crews get some rest.

“We are working to get in more resources to replace those folks and reassess between fires,” said fire information officer Claire Allen.

On top of the fires within B.C., destructive and deadly wildfires are burning in Ontario, California and Greece, just to name a few.

“It is certainly a crazy time for wildfires, not just in B.C. and Canada but across all of North American and even globally,” said Allen.

“Resources are stretched pretty thin across the world. The European Union is very tried up in Greece and Sweden, Australia has been called on pretty heavily for fires throughout the northern hemisphere.”

This global problem of destructive wildfires is not new in 2018, it is an ongoing pattern of increasing fire activity that has been called the “new normal”.